Angelo wants upgrade from within

Angelo wants upgrade from within
GM believes players, staff have what it takes to make jump in '09


February 23, 2009
BY MIKE MULLIGAN mmulligan@suntimes.com
INDIANAPOLIS -- The English statesman Winston Churchill may have coined the phrase ''History is written by the victors,'' but the sportsmen of America have been the ones to prove it.

Take former Colts coach Tony Dungy, whose team beat the Bears in Super Bowl XLI two years ago. Dungy now seems to make a living writing books -- a children's book, a self-help book, a motivational book. Lou Piniella is hoping to translate the life lessons of his Tampa, Fla., neighbor into a World Series title for the Cubs.

Would Sweet Lou be studying the words of Lovie Smith in some parallel universe? Smith remains a master of the unsaid word since his team finished second to his old mentor Dungy. No New York Times best-sellers for the Bears coach -- at least none to date.

Will the Bears get back to the big game and rewrite history? In the midst of his state-of-the-Bears address to local media Saturday during the NFL combine, general manager Jerry Angelo hit on a great truth about the team's hope for success. Angelo said he hopes for marked improvement in 2009 through better coaching and the better ''attitude'' of players.

Angelo doesn't devalue coaching. In fact, he said several times he expects a big impact from defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, whom Smith earlier that day called the team's best free-agent signing. But he recognized a problem with the players the last two seasons.

'Coaching will take you so far'
''It comes back to players wanting to be great and then putting that into action in terms of their work ethic, in terms of doing all the things that they need to do and holding themselves personally accountable to be the best they can be,'' Angelo said. ''That's all we ask of our players: Just be the best you can be, stay within the framework of the team and hang tough.

''If you get a locker room full of players with that mentality, you don't need great talent to win on Sunday. Every year a team takes on a whole new identity. You can't look at last year and say, well, they're going to pick up off here to the good or the bad. A team takes on that identity starting when they come back in the offseason program, and that's incumbent of the players.

''Coaching will take you so far. Our coaches will be driven to be a great team. That's what we're expected to do, and we're all paid to win, but we're all incumbent to do our jobs. We're all held accountable.''

Smith clearly wants to send that message to his players. Why else would he have moved up minicamp to March 16 from the usual start a week after the draft? It's a strategy designed to shake up the routine of veterans and get them out of Las Vegas or Phoenix or the Bahamas or wherever a private jet can take them and remind them that football is a year-round job.

If the Bears are going to take a step forward next season, much of the improvement will come from within. Angelo effectively told reporters they can call off the Countdown to Free Agency because there won't be much action Friday. The market is thin and money is tight, so most of the moves will be for support players or stopgaps. The draft is always the most crucial personnel period because it supplies the lifeblood of a team -- an influx of new talent and young, cheap contributors.

D-line decisions beckoning
The Bears need to upgrade the talent on both lines. The biggest need is an elite pass rusher, which Angelo concedes is unlikely to be on the board at No. 18. The Bears likely will take an offensive tackle at that spot. They also need a wide receiver, a cornerback, a free safety and more help on both lines. It's an imposing list that likely can't be filled in one offseason.

Improvement from within isn't as easy as it appears. Even if Marinelli is the answer to the problems on the defensive line, you have to wonder if he has arrived in time. The Bears are looking at decision time for a host of defensive linemen. Adewale Ogunleye, Mark Anderson and Israel Idonije are entering the final year of their contracts. If Marinelli is going to make an impact, it will have to happen in a hurry. And even if it does, it might wind up helping other teams come next year's free-agent market.

What can the Bears do? Ogunleye has played well the last few years, but he's not going to get an extension. Anderson has played poorly after a standout rookie season. Idonije isn't a starter. Teams get themselves in trouble when they pay backups big money.

Angelo got it right when asked if the Bears could rely only on Marinelli to make their defensive line better, or do they also need to add players to the mix.

''It starts with our present cast,'' Angelo said. ''We've got a pretty good nucleus. Rod's an excellent coach. He's going to get the most out of the players, and hopefully they can take another step collectively and individually. I don't feel any reason why they can't. I like the way our defensive staff is shaping up, and I'm counting on the fact that we're going to do a better job of coaching, and that in itself is going to make us a better team.''

If the Bears can coach their way to glory, surely there's a best-seller in it somewhere.
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